MSNBC guest: 'White flight' happened in Detroit because black mayor told whites to leave town

GOP consultant Katie Packer stunned MSNBC host Chris Hayes on Friday with her attempt to explain the phenomenon of "white flight" in her native Detroit.

"Absolutely, it is a phenomenon -- I'm speaking specifically to Detroit, where the Democrat mayor, Coleman Young, basically asked the white people of the city of Detroit to leave," said Packer, who was Mitt Romney's deputy campaign manager in 2012. "That's what caused 'white flight' at that time."

Packer did not identify the remarks allegedly made by Young, the city's first black mayor, that prompted the alleged exodus. Young, who served between 1974 and 1994, died in 1997.

"That is your argument for why 'white flight' happened in the city of Detroit?" Hayes asked incredulously.

"This argument is not worthy of your respect," said Hayes' other guest, Rick Perlstein.

"Katie Packer, Katie Packer," Hayes said. "You think 'white flight' happened in the city of Detroit because a black mayor told white people to leave Detroit? Is that the story of Detroit?"

"I grew up in Detroit," she replied. "You talk to people who live in Detroit, and you'll have a better understanding of how that happened."

"If you talk to white people who left Detroit, I imagine that would happen," Hayes said.

Watch the discussion, as aired on Friday, below.

.@katiepack: white flight in Detroit due to black mayor asking white people to leave #innershttps://t.co/c54cNTlNOj

— All In w/Chris Hayes (@allinwithchris) August 27, 2016